.~> By manipulation of successive individual articles {2}
DEFINITION
Classification: 221/156
(under the class definition) Article dispensers for articles which are each similarly asymmetric about at least one axis and having means to align, arrange, or selectively engage such articles so that the variations from symmetry are all turned in a desired direction or directions.
(1) Note. The characteristics claimed must include the specific means for effecting the orienting. The broad inclusion of an element of general dispensing utility, even though disclosed as an orienting element is not enough to warrant classification in this subclass or the indented subclasses.
(2) Note. To be classified in this subclass and the indented subclasses, a patent must include a claimed disclosure of a dispensing combination under the class definition of this class which includes the orienting feature. Where the orienting feature is claimed, per se, classification is in the appropriate other article handling class. There must be an actual rearrangement or turning of the articles as distinguished from a mere perfecting of the alignment of substantially similarly oriented articles to warrant classification in this and the indented subclasses.
SEE OR SEARCH THIS CLASS, SUBCLASS:
175+, for article dispensing devices having means to form stacks of articles from sources in which the articles are differently arranged, including hoppers. Many of such devices disclose but do not claim the orientation of the articles dispensed, and the modes of operation, insofar as the article handling means are concerned, are the same.
SEE OR SEARCH CLASS
99, Foods and Beverages: Apparatus,
485+, for apparatus especially adopted for treating food under the class definition, note especially subclasses 549+ for removing core-pits wherein the food is particularly oriented
198, Conveyors: Power-Driven,
373+, for a conveyor having means for changing the attitude of the conveyed load relative to the conveying direction.
209, Classifying, Separating, and Assorting Solids, appropriate subclasses, and especially in
509+, for methods and apparatus, including dispensing, for assorting physically unlike articles. If a device is in fact a dispenser under the class definition of Class 221 and all the articles handled are physically alike and means are provided for either turning the articles in a desired direction or for dispensing selectively only those which are in a desired orientation, classification is in Class 221. See (2) Note above. The line between Classes 209 and 221 is stated in section VII of the class definition of this class (221).
